Food stamps aren’t enough for families to afford the healthy diet the federal government recommends. A researcher at N.C. State University has helped define the financial distance between food stamps and healthy eating.

It would cost a family of four, with two adults and two children, as much as $627 more per month than they receive in food stamps to eat the recommended healthy diet, concluded a study co-authored by Lindsey Haynes-Maslow, an assistant professor and extension specialist at N.C. State.

People who use food stamps must have a maximum income before taxes that’s 130 percent of poverty. For a family of four, that’s $2,628 a month. Research shows that most food stamp recipients work. North Carolina recipients must prove they’re working, volunteering or taking classes at least 20 hours a week.

People using food stamps often use food pantries to supplement their purchases.

Late Tuesday, Maya McDowell, 32, waited in the lobby of the Catholic Charities food pantry in Raleigh for a donation that will help feed her and her two sons, ages 3 and 8.